Former White House senior adviser David Axelrod said when it comes to the debate over health care coverage in the country, he takes the subject personally, and he says politicians like Rep. Marsha Blackburn should as well.

Axelrod said having experienced firsthand how difficult it is to have a child with a chronic illness and not be sure you can pay your health insurance bills, he takes issue with comments last month from the Tennessee Republican comparing allowing people to have so-called “junk” insurance plans to choosing plastic cups over stemware.

“I feel very strongly about this,” Axelrod said on MSNBC’s “Now with Alex Wagner” on Friday. “It really, really irks me to see this treated as a kind of football in a political battle between Republicans and Democrats. There are lives at stake here. And Marcia Blackburn said red solo cup, you’d be able to choose a red solo cup or crystal stem. This isn’t about beverages, it’s about life and death, so let’s treat it that way.”

The MSNBC contributor said his personal experience helps him keep an eye on the bigger picture.

“I remember when my child was sick, and I was sitting in the emergency room, and I saw others in more strapped circumstances than me sitting there in utter panic thinking about how in the world they were going afford the health care they needed to keep their kids going,” Axelrod said. “So you work and you work and you work, and then you don’t have basic health care. Is that the country we believe in?

Axelrod also called out Texas Gov. Rick Perry for turning down Medicaid expansion in his state.